Scientists turn carbon dioxide into stone to combat global warming
Amina Khan Deep in the solidified lava beneath Iceland, scientists have managed an unprecedented feat: They’ve taken carbon dioxide released by a power plant and turned it into rock at a rate much faster than laboratory tests predicted. The findings , described in the journal Science, demonstrate a powerful method of carbon storage that could reduce some of the human-caused greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. “These are really exciting results,” said Roger Aines, a geochemist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who was not involved in the study. “Nobody had ever actually done a large-scale experiment like they’ve done, under the conditions that they did it.” See the most-read stories in Science this hour » The pilot program, performed at Reykjavik Energy’s geothermal power plant under a European-U.S. program called CarbFix, was able to turn more than 95% of carbon dioxide injected into the earth into chalky rock within just two years. “We